Planting Grass Plugs from Trays with the ProPlugger

• Planting grass plugs from trays purchased online is a great option for filling in small or medium sized areas with spreading grasses such as Zoysia, Bermuda, and Centipede
• For larger areas it’s probably worth it to source your plugs from sod
  • Sourcing plugs from sod is much less expensive than trays, but isn’t as convenient

Watch the video or follow the directions below

Step 1: Prepare the planting area by killing the grass or weeds

Chemicals

• Glyphosphate
  • The old brand name is Round-Up, but there are many formulations 
    • I use Hi-Yield Killzall
  • Follow the directions on the label for mixing and spraying
    • Spray it, wait a week, spray it again, wait a week, and it’s ready for plugging

Tilling

• This will get rid of your existing grass without the need for chemicals 

Solarizing

• Solarizing involves tilling, watering, and then covering an area with clear plastic during the summer for at least 4 weeks.  This is a more involved process but comes with the benefit of killing seeds in the ground, which the other methods don’t do

Step 2: Water the planting area the night before plugging

• Moist soil is much easier to plug than dry soil, particularly if your soil has a heavy clay content   
  • Don’t over water  
  • If soil gets too muddy the plugger may clog up, or plugs may have difficulty coming out of the ground     
• Here is a link on how to deal with clogs while using the ProPlugger

Step 3:  Take plugs out of the planting area 6″ apart

Smaller plugs (e.g. 1.75″ x 1.75″) will fit into the holes dug by the ProPlugger

Larger plugs (e.g. 3″ x 3″) require you to dig 3 holes in a triangle pattern

• Use the 2″ depth ring to dig your holes

Step 3: Plant the grass plugs

• Add soil around the plugs

Step 4:  Water the grass plugs

• Water the new plugs just like new sod
  • You have to customize how often you water based on your climate and soil type
  • The links below show you how
    • https://sodlawn.com/sod-care/sod-watering
    • https://gvt.net/turf-care/new-sod-care
• Use highly adjustable sprinklers like this one
  • In the picture above I’m using micro sprinklers attached to drip line irrigation, but a good adjustable sprinklers could have watered even very small areas like these without much over spray
• Use water timers
  • They can be a bit tricky to learn at first, but once you get the hang of it they can save you a lot of time

Step 5:  Watch them grow

• Plugs planted 6″ apart usually fill in within 1 year though it may take 2
  • Optimal growth is encouraged when…
    • Plugs are watered well during the 1st month of growth
    • Maintained on normal watering recommendations thereafter (e.g. 1″ once a week)
    • Overgrowth of weeds is prevented

• The picture above shows the growth of Emerald Zoysia plugs that have been taken from sod
• Plugs planted from trays should do just as well

For additional information including weed control and more detailed watering instructions follow this link